Holding Hands
by Collie Parkillo
Summary: Parker was not expecting a fight with Barkovitch to end like this. /oneshot, rated T for language./


**Author's Note: Hey, this is my first Long Walk fic, so I'm a bit nervous about putting it out there. Thanks to Aurora/Nightkill for the idea ^^**

**Disclaimer: The Long Walk belongs to Stephen King. Not me.**

Barkovitch didn't necessarily hate people.

It was more that people hated him. No matter what he did, it always seemed that everybody else would hate him. People jumped him in the hallways. Once, in first grade, a boy called Baker had taken his markers and flushed them down the toilet. That'd really been when it started. It'd escalated since then, now when people weren't jumping him they were just...bothering him.

Or maybe he just hated people.

The last couple of weeks had been blissfully peaceful for him. No shoving against lockers. No cursing at him in the hallways. Of course, there were still the usual glares in the hallways. But there was only one student who glared at him, everyone else seemed to just avert their eyes like he had the plague.

Collie Parker was that one student. Barkovitch wasn't entirely sure why, but whenever they passed each other in the hallway, Parker's eyes would immediately go to Barkovitch, and his brow would furrow like he'd just seen a particularly disgusting rat.

Barkovitch wasn't sure what he'd done, but apparently it was something really bad, because Parker reserved this look for him alone.

Tuesday began like any other day. Barkovitch stuffed his books in his locker and trudged off to advisory, dreading another ten minutes of talking about their feelings and social lives with an overweight English teacher. _Ha, social lives, what on earth are those? Fucking foreign concept to me._

While walking to first period, Barkovitch ran into, guess who, Collie Parker. Tall, blonde, ugly Collie Parker, who always seemed to look like he'd messed his hair up to make it look cool. Parker didn't say a word, as usual, but instead just glared in Barkovitch's direction.

He just couldn't stand it anymore. This had been happening for almost every day since he came to this goddamn school. So he went up and tapped Parker's shoulder. He turned around, looking down on Barkovitch.

"What'd I do?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"You're always look at me like I've done something horrible! What'd I do?"

Parker looked confused, then angry. "I haven't been looking at you like anything!"

"Yeah, you have!"

"Fuck you!" yelled Parker, kicking Barkovitch's shin and knocking him over. A crowd of students gathered around them, watching excitedly like a group of spectators during a dog fight.

"What the hell did you do that for?!"

Parker didn't answer and instead kicked Barkovitch again. Barkovitch found that being short had its advantages and rolled out of the way, getting up, only to find Parker's fist connecting with his face, probably creating a large purple bruise on his far too pale skin.

"Dammit, what'd I do to make you angry?!" Parker, again, didn't answer and grabbed him by the hood of his sweatshirt and shoved him up against the vomit-green lockers. Barkovitch felt a nosebleed starting and couldn't do much else other than glare angrily at Parker, who didn't seem to want to let go of him.

Barkovitch was about to start screaming accusations when someone else did it for him. _"What _are you two doing?!" A voice screeched from down the hall.

The voice belonged to a tall, skinny man in a suit. The crowd of students quickly scattered, deciding that they had something else to do. Parker paled and dropped Barkovitch, who fell to the floor with a loud thud.

"Mr. Parker, Mr. Barkovitch, you two have some explaining to do!" Principal Gordon was red in the face and looked angrier than they'd ever seen him.

"He provoked me!" Parker said, trying to sound sophisticated and failing miserably.

Barkovitch groaned and got up. This wasn't an unusual occurrence for him, but it was rare that someone actually noticed. "He just...attacked me for no reason..."

"Well, whatever the reason, that was absolutely uncalled for and you two absolutely need to be punished!"

Parker tried to regain his cool and leaned against the locker. "Yeah? What've you got in store for us?"  
Barkovitch was furious at how smooth Parker was coming off. It was _his _job to make snarky remarks and seem annoyingly smooth. But he kept his mouth shut. Unlike Parker, he was actually born with a brain stem and knew that Principal Gordon was not in the mood for fuckery.

"Mr. Parker, what I have in store for you is this. Until lunch, you and Barkovitch are to sit down in two chairs I'll put out for you, and hold hands. Just sit there and hold hands. Don't move."

Barkovitch looked disgustedly up at Parker.

Parker gawked at Barkovitch, even more disgusted. "You mean...I have to _hold his hand?! _Like we're in a fucking relationship?!"

"Watch your language, Parker. It's to make a point to you and everyone else."

Barkovitch finally opened his mouth to speak. "But...that's...that's queer!"

"No, it's not. And if you don't stop being so vulgar, I will extend the amount of time you have to hold hands. This is a very serious matter, Barkovitch."

Parker and Barkovitch looked at each other, well, more like glared at each other. The small, dark loner and the tall, golden-haired basketball player hesitantly took each other's hand. Barkovitch's glare intensified and Parker was beginning to wish that he'd never messed with the short, ugly kid.

"So we don't have to go to class? Just sit there?"

"Yes."

"What's the point of that?"

"To set an example," the principal said matter-of-fact-ly. "Go on."

Grudgingly, the pair walked to a spot in the hallway where the principal then went to get two chairs. Parker had just barely hooked his fingers in Barkovitch's, the feeling of their hands together wasn't one he was relishing. Especially because Barkovitch's hands were unusually cold and felt a bit like how he'd imagined a zombie's would.

"This is fucking ridiculous," hissed Barkovitch.

"I know."

The crowd of students from before reappeared, looking curiously at the spectacle before them. Parker looked around awkwardly, using his free hand to push his mop of blonde hair out of his eyes. This was the most humiliating thing he'd ever done. He was the star of the basketball team, one of the most popular boys in school, and here he was holding the hand of Barkovitch, some loser nobody. In front of everybody.

Barkovitch felt equally unhappy about it. Parker was both a dick and someone he hated. And yet everybody was probably thinking they were queer for each other.

He noticed Peter McVries, another of his least favorite people, taking out an iPhone and snapping photographs. His face reddened and he quickly looked down. Then he realized that just about everybody was taking photographs.

He wondered if they were laughing. What were they thinking? Queer? Friends? Did they know that this was a punishment?

Parker was even more humiliated. He tried to keep cool about the whole thing, but unfortunately eventually just yelped, "Fuck all of you!"

The group of students got quieter. "Go the fuck to class and leave me and Barkobitch alone! We're being punished!"

_"Barkobitch?!" _growled the boy in question. Parker ignored him. The group of students, unfortunately, didn't leave and instead just began whispering to each other. Parker looked up at the clock. First period, still. He had three more periods of sitting here.

"What'd you do to get punished like this, killer?" asked McVries. 'Killer' was a nickname McVries had given him because of Barkovitch's supposed bad temper.

"Fight," he said through gritted teeth.

McVries smiled. "Well, make love, not war."

"What the fuck?" Parker's sentences were becoming even more filled with swears, if that was even possible. McVries' smile just widened and he lost interest and walked away.

Somehow everybody's gaze was on the two boys and Barkovitch felt a shiver go down his spine. If there was one thing he hated, it was being watched. He felt like a bug under a microscope, everyone was scrutinizing him and judging him and that just make him very, very afraid.

Barkovitch couldn't help it. He squeezed Parker's hand.

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**Yep. Hope that was enjoyable or at least tolerable. I just love this pairing :D**


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